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User blog:John Pan/Mirage-class
The Zumwalt-class was a good first step towards nuclear-powered stealthy destroyers armed with 64GJ railguns. Unfortunately the USN was too cash-stripped to purchase more than three, and only one was fielded by the GNC. Plus, it was too small, making it prone to tipping over, and stopped it from fielding a lot of guns. After the NAU was formed, the new Navy decided that carrier escorts nor tiny railgun destroyers were not enough against the increasingly powerful Asian combatants and increasingly insane Russian cruisers. To respond to these designs, the NAU designed an enlarged Zumwalt- one weighing 16,000 tons. Armed to the teeth with weapons to take out rival capital ships. Class: Cruiser Internal designation: Surface Combatant, SCT Displacement: 16,000 tons Number: 6+2 in 2033: Hull designation SCT-10 to SCT-17 Mirage, Ghost, Phantom, Specter, Revenant, Reaper, Nyx ''and ''Loki Purpose The Mirage-class is designed to prowl the seas and eliminate unauthorized surface ships. It also carries good anti-air and anti-submarine weaponry to protect itself from non-ship threats as well. Capacity The Mirage-class can carry two NH-51 Fire Pelicans to protect the SCT from submarines and hit-and-runs by small boats. Anti-Surface Suite Mirage-class ships have tower-mounted X-band AESA arrays to find targets that are not underwater. While nowhere as high-powered as the AN/SPY-2, the array is powerful enough for its job, able to find and track up to 20 surface contacts at 200 kilometers. Mk. 138 100mm Railgun (2) The main anti-surface weapon of the Mirage are its two Mk.138 100mm railguns. The railgun launches 20 kilogram Ferric-Tungsten shell past Mach 8, or 2.8 kilometers per second. Each Ferric-Tungsten shell is GPS-guided and fin-equipped, providing it with accuracy to airburst a ground target 3000 kilometers away. Alternatively, it can use its Fire Control Radar to target a ship 200 kilometers away very accurately. With this kind of firepower, it can cleave a Type 026 Missile Boat into two halves at such distances. The Mk.138 can fire six times a minute, although Mirage-class crews usually reduce this to three times a minute to preserve the railgun's lifespan. Mk. 76 VLS To counter multiple surface threats, the Mirage-class can pack a maximum of 28 RGM-200 Tridents into its Mk. 76 Vertical Launch System, located on the two sides of tower. They can eliminate ships 200 kilometers away, flying at Mach 3. However, most ships carry ARSOCs, as the railguns are already very potent against enemy ships. Anti-Air Suite A tower-mounted X-band AESA array takes care of target acquisition. It provides the Mirage-class with the capability to track and engage 100 targets 150 kilometers away. Although far less powerful than the notorious AN/SPY-2, it is potent for the Mirage-class' role. Mk. 76 VLS The Mirage-class can pack its Mk.76 VLS with 160 quad-pack SL-AIM-88s. The SL-AIM-88 differs from the air-launched version in only the cold-launch compressed Nitrogen charge that flings the missile out of the launcher. The SL-AIM-88 can take out aircraft 150 kilometers away. Anti-Submarine Suite The Mirage-class has a massive EADS bow-mounted sonar array to find where underwater dangers lurk. The SONAR is assisted with sound analyzers and advanced passive reception equipment to hunt for the most silent of submarines. It can launch it's two NH-51 Fire Pelican to attack such targets with its air-dropped torpedoes, or directly with ARSOCs. Mk. 76 VLS The tower-side VLS can be loaded with Advanced Ship-Launched Torpedoes, 28 of them. They pop out of the launcher via compressed Nitrogen charge, are boosted into the water by a rocket, then tears through the water at a maximum of 75 knots. It can deliver its 750lb blast-fragmentation warhead 70 kilometers through the water, very capable at engaging submarines and other ships. Upgrades A) NGNJ The Next Generation Naval Jammer is a development of EADS and Raytheon. They managed to create a concealed ( masked jammer location) multiband radar frequency jammer, making it extremely hard to find on your radar screen. This reduces its detection rate hundred-fold, making it stealthy even to counter-stealth radar arrays. Protection The Mirage-class is fitted with an Advanced Naval Composite Armor, a combination of Hardened Steel, supramolecular plastics and Kevlar spall liners. This provides it with the capability to reduce the explosive brunt of explosives and spalling, and regenerate holes in the hull, as long as the hole is not too massive. Fully waterproof compartments and a massive array of firefighting and leak-fixing tools are spread all over the ship. Guided weapons can be jammed by the onboard E/O jammer or chaff and flares dispenser. The Mirage-class also has the RCS of a speedboat and is as quiet as a submarine. Goalkeeper Mk. II (4) The Mirage-class also carries four Goalkeeper Mk.II CIWS to blow missiles out of the sky with the tried-and-tested GAU-8 Avenger Gatling before they cause any harm. The Goalkeeper Mk. II is fitted with an X-band and Ku-band Fire Control Radar to find and attack targets, and the GAU-8 is fed with a 600-round Sabot drum magazine. MK. 72 APR (2) The Mirage-class has the pinnacle of long-ranged CIWS technology as well: the Mk.72 Anti-Projectile Railgun. It is MAWS A-10 light railgun hooked up to a Ku-band and L-band Fire Control Radar. The Mk.72 fires 10mmx80mm Tungsten rods at 10 kilometers per second, providing it with the power to destroy a Kh-200 AShM at 30 kilometers. Missile armor is hopelessly outmatched by this CIWS; however it can only fire at 10 rpm. Metal Storm CIWS (2) Mirage-class Surface Combatants also carry the Metal Storm CIWS. When 30mm sabots fired at 4,000 rpm is not enough, how about 1,000,000? The launcher keeps six barrages of forty-eight 30mm sabots at once, and only fires the next barrage if the first one failed to disintegrate the target. It is guided by the same Fire Control suite as the Goalkeeper Mk.II. The Mirage carries a duo of this CIWS. DDCL (6) To provide protection against underwater threats, the Mirage-class carries six Defensive Depth Charge Launchers. It is a rotating carousel-style 180mm projectile launcher that shoots 180mm depth charges. They are shot into intercept angle and programmable to select a certain depth or use its nose-mounted MAD detonate its 100lb of high explosive. Potent enough to take out a torpedo. Propulsion Mirage-class ships use two General Atomics AB3 4th generation Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors to power the surface combatant. They provide the ship with a combined 1 GW of power, far more than enough to power the ship's computers, radars, railguns, propellers and SONAR. It keeps the ship cruising through the ocean at 60 knots, even when the Mk.138s are firing, a feat that the Zumwalt never could have accomplished. Category:Blog posts